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*****
"Once you've digested the potion, you can apply for your advancement at any time. We will arrange for a mermaid to be transported here," Christae said to George, after having ordered his subordinates to take the now-mundane Mr. A away for interrogation.
George offered a small smile. "Well, you can file that application right now. My potion is already fully digested."
"What!?"
Christae's eyes widened in utter disbelief. If he recalled correctly, George had only advanced to Sequence 6, "Faceless," after killing Qilangos and extracting the characteristic from Creeping Hunger. That had been less than a month ago.
Even for the most gifted Beyonders, digesting a potion usually took months, if not years—and the higher the sequence, the more difficult the process became. Many high-sequence powerhouses, especially those within the Churches, remained at their current level for decades simply because they were still struggling with digestion. Some had spent twenty years on a single stage and were still nowhere near finished.
"I can't help it. Perhaps I'm just exceptionally talented," George said with a shrug.
Christae's mouth twitched slightly. He himself had been stuck at Sequence 6 for three full years before advancing, and he had remained at Sequence 5 for another five years. In the Church, he was considered a prodigy.
Truly, comparisons were odious. George was still technically an infant, yet back when he was only at Sequence 7, he was already capable of manhandling both Christae and the Sequence 4 Raydal.
"Fine. I'll write the application now. The mermaid should be delivered by tomorrow evening."
"Perfect." With a flicker of fire, George vanished from the spot.
Not long after George departed, a Nighthawk approached Christae with a grim expression to deliver a report. "Mr. A is dead. It appears a specific curse was placed on his soul; the moment he attempted to leak any secrets, the curse triggered and killed him instantly."
"I don't blame you. It was my oversight," Christae replied, his brow furrowing. He hadn't expected a Sequence 5 like Mr. A to carry such a subtle and high-level curse. This implied that the Aurora Order's designs on Backlund were far more dangerous than he had initially anticipated. "Report this to the Archbishop immediately!"
Back in his room, George began to take inventory of his spoils. Aside from Mr. A's own Beyonder characteristic, he had obtained the characteristics of the souls Mr. A had grazed.
The haul was impressive:
A Sequence 6 "Baron of Corruption" characteristic (Black Emperor pathway).
A Sequence 6 "Devil" characteristic (Abyss pathway).
A Sequence 6 "Recorder" characteristic (Door pathway).
A Sequence 5 "Demoness of Pleasure" characteristic (Demoness pathway).
A Sequence 6 "Wind-blessed" characteristic (Storm pathway).
A Sequence 6 "Soul Assuager" characteristic (Darkness pathway).
A Sequence 6 "Potion Professor" characteristic (Moon pathway).
Seven different characteristics in total—exactly the limit for a Sequence 5 Shepherd. Had Mr. A not run into an absolute monster like George, it would have been nearly impossible even for a Sequence 4 Demigod to capture him so cleanly.
"I'll study them first, then toss them to the members of the Tarot Club once I'm done," George decided.
He separated the characteristics from the seven souls. Then, taking those souls along with the previously sealed Ince Zangwill, he entered his own private world. Now that the True Creator was "dead" (or at least out of the picture), he no longer needed to be so cautious about using his personal dimension. Within his world, he could effectively block the prying eyes of the local deities and freely utilize magic from other universes.
"Soul Search!"
One by one, George used memory magic to strip the eight souls of their secrets. All the potion formulas from Sequence 9 to Sequence 6 for the Black Emperor, Abyss, Door, Storm, Darkness, and Moon pathways—along with their corresponding abilities and occult knowledge—poured into his mind.
He didn't need the Demoness pathway information, as he had already obtained knowledge up to Sequence 2 from the Primordial Demoness herself. Similarly, he hadn't bothered searching Mr. A's own mind for Hanged Man knowledge, as his understanding of that pathway surpassed the Oracle's thanks to his dealings with the True Creator.
As for whatever conspiracy the Aurora Order had planned for Backlund, that was the Church of Evernight's problem. George wasn't particularly interested. If the Order actually managed to stir up trouble and the Church came to him for help, he could simply use the opportunity to farm more merit for higher-sequence formulas and materials.
Beyond the sequence knowledge, George also gained a wealth of general occult common sense and, more importantly, the names of several high-sequence cultists. Once he converted a "Person-Finding" spell and combined it with divination, he could track these cultists down and trade them in for the remaining ingredients he needed.
The following night, George returned to the Church of the Evernight Goddess. Christae led him to a pool in the cathedral's backyard. In the center of the pool, perched upon a large rock, a mermaid was singing.
Her song carried a peculiar, intoxicating allure that made one's mind drift, drawing them toward her irresistibly. Naturally, it had no effect on George.
Sensing the disturbance, the creature stopped singing and turned around. She had the head of a human woman, with features that blended innocence with a hint of seductive glamour. At a glance, she was a stunning beauty. Her chest was prominent but covered in dark red scales, and her lower half consisted of a massive, shimmering fish tail that possessed a strange aesthetic appeal.
However, the moment she opened her mouth to reveal rows of shark-like jagged teeth and trails of disgusting mucus, the beauty was utterly shattered. In the end, a mermaid in this world was merely a monster mutated by Beyonder characteristics, not the creature of fairy tales.
"At least she's easier on the eyes than the ones in the Black Lake," George remarked to himself. Compared to the hideous merpeople in the depths of Hogwarts' lake, this mermaid was actually quite pleasant to look at—as long as she kept her mouth shut.
"You may consume the potion now," Christae said. He activated his "Sleepless" abilities to pull the mermaid into a dream-like state, guiding her to begin singing once more.
George took the Sequence 5 advancement potion Christae had provided and swallowed it in a single gulp. As the potion merged with the characteristics already inside him, he successfully ascended to Sequence 5: "Marionettist."
In that moment, he understood why the Seer pathway required the song of a mermaid for this ritual. The primary new ability of a Marionettist was the control of "Spirit Body Threads," allowing them to turn enemies into their puppets—much like the Sealed Artifact 2-049, the Antigonus family puppet.
During the advancement, a Beyonder's body would naturally begin to stiffen and turn puppet-like. They required the allure of the mermaid's song to keep their consciousness active and gradually regain control over their physical form.
In truth, it didn't have to be a mermaid's song; any method that prevented the body from being fully overtaken by the Spirit Body Threads would work. For George, whose physical body was unfathomably powerful, the mermaid's song couldn't tempt him, and the Spirit Body Threads couldn't hope to stiffen his limbs. The ritual was, for him, largely redundant.
"I'll just treat it as a new experience."
George wasn't bothered by the fact that he had essentially wasted a Sequence 5 Oracle to get a "useless" ritual. Capturing a Sequence 5 was as easy as breathing for him anyway. Even without a ritual, he could have advanced through sheer physical dominance by swallowing the characteristics directly.
He chose to follow the rules to fully "experience" and understand the sequence, thereby reducing the risk of the Celestial Worthy's will awakening within him.
(End of Chapter)